HC seeks Punjab govt’s affidavit on farmer union’s plea against linking bank accounts for MSP

: The Punjab and Haryana high court has sought an affidavit from director, department of food, civil supplies and consumer affairs, Punjab on the plea of the farmers’

: The Punjab and Haryana high court has sought an affidavit from director, department of food, civil supplies and consumer affairs, Punjab on the plea of the farmers’ body–Punjab Kisan Union. The affidavit has been sought by justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa by October 29, on the plea asking the court to quash government instructions, whereby farmers have been asked to provide their account number for payment of minimum support price (MSP) of their crops.

MSP is not a subsidy by the government, akin to central sector (SC) schemes, rather, MSP is the cost price of the crop of a farmer, the court was told, adding that instructions put out by the government need to be quashed.

The court was told that in 2017, to ensure complete tracking of subsidies meant for Central sector schemes on Public Financial Management System (PFMS) and Expenditure, Advance and Transfer (EAT) module for all Program Implementing Agencies (PIAs) was started. This module was to ensure complete tracking of the grant for central schemes. The universal roll out envisaged that the releases for central schemes for all levels of implementing agencies would be only made through PFMS. Under this, funds under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Grantee Act (MGNREGA), Public Distribution Scheme (PDS) and scholarships etc., were to be released, so that it reaches the real beneficiaries.

The petitioner’s counsel, Charanjit Sharma, told the court that now under the garb of PFMS, the food corporation of India has started forcing state procurement agencies and arhtias to link bank account numbers of the farmers. State agencies are forcing the programme implementing agencies to implement this for MSP, which is actually meant only for Central sector subsidies or grants, the court was told, adding that it would result in illegal monitoring of personal banking/farming accounts of farmers.